The holidays are a time for cheer and giving, and a township woman this year is giving back to her step-father, who has been taking care of her since she was 11 years old.
~Courtesy of Film Brothers Productions, Bridgewater Courier News

MANVILLE - A state appellate court has upheld the conviction and sentence of a Bridgewater man for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old Manville girl during a sleepover in 2015.

Arthur Wildgoose Jr., 35, will not be eligible for parole until Oct. 21, 2042 under the terms of the 30-year sentence handed down in January by Superior Court Judge Angela Borkowski, who called the crime "unthinkable." Wildgoose is serving his sentence in South Woods State Prison, Bridgeton.

Wildgoose will also be a registered violent sex offender under Megan's Law and will be under parole supervision for life.

The appellate panel rejected Wildgoose's argument that his conviction should be overturned because of errors that the judge made during the trial and that his sentence was excessive.

In a decision released on Dec. 24, the appellate judges found that Wildgoose received a fair trial. The judges also wrote that the sentence was not excessive, based on Wildgoose's "lack of remorse or acceptance of responsibility."

Borkowksi noted in her sentencing that Wildgoose's instructions to the victim to delete text messages "fully support a conclusion that (Wildgoose) knew what (he was) doing was wrong." Borkowski also said that a "significant period of incarceration is required for the protection of the public."

Wildgoose, a tow truck driver who was also a single father with two young children, was arrested in December 2015 after the victim told detectives from the Somerset County's Sex Crime and Child Abuse Unit that Wildgoose had sexually assaulted her during a sleepover In November 2015 in the basement of her Manville home.

The victim's mother first met Wildgoose in December 2014 when he was coaching youth basketball. He and the mother began socializing and eventually visited her home for Sunday family dinners and spent entire weekends at her home. But, court papers say, she and Wildgoose never went on a date alone or pursued a sexual relationship; their activities always included her children and sometimes his children as well.

Wildgoose then took an interest in helping the victim with basketball. He then started taking her on tow truck calls and took her to spread birdseed and apples to attract deer, according to court papers.

When the victim turned 12 in April 2015, he gave her a six-foot teddy bear that smelled of his cologne, balloons, lottery tickets and a Yankees shirt.

Six months later, court papers say, they began exchanging text messages and he asked her if she would be his girlfriend. A month later, in November 2015, was the sleepover where the sexual assault occurred.

Tim Vollenbroek of Woodbridge is pictured with his three daughters on Christmas Eve at Rockefeller Center. The family makes an annual holiday pilgrimage, but this year, the trip was made even more special when Vollenbroek married his longtime girlfriend, Cathy Fitzpatrick. ~Courtesy of Cathy Fitzpatrick

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On the following day, Wildgoose gave the victim a morning-after birth control pill, court papers say. A month later, the victim told her mother what had happened.

In an emotional statement before the judge handed down the sentence, the victim's mother said that while Wildgoose will spend the next quarter-century in prison, her daughter "will serve a life sentence."